Lincoln Bicentennial
Lincoln's Legacy in Florida
On May 20, 1865, Brigadier General Edward McCook announced the Emancipation Proclamation from the steps of the Knott House in Tallahassee, which served as temporary Union Headquarters.
Fort Jefferson, located on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, was used during and after the Civil War to imprison deserters and other criminals, notably Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. - In May 1956, the Rev. C.K. Steele led a boycott of the Tallahassee bus system that gradually eased segregation on city buses.
- In April 2007, Governor Charlie Crist secured a change to provide automatic restoration of civil rights for certain ex-offenders who committed less severe non-violent crimes, and meet certain requirements.
- In March 2008, the Legislature approved a resolution formally apologizing for the Florida’s “shameful” history of slavery, joining five other states in issuing such an apology.
